Lifecycle Management Specification
Lifecycle management concerns the process of incarnation, runtime management, and etherialization. Incarnation is the sequence involving instantiation and possible application of a series of lifecycle stage processes (such as configuration, contextualization, etc.). Runtime management deals with the suspension, resumption of a component. Etherialization represents the process of component end-of-life processing possibly involving the application of multiple lifecycle phases (e.g. disposal).
Phase Table
| Incarnation | Just as objects are instantiated, the equivalent process from a component is "incarnation". Incarnation involves instantiation, a series of optional artifact delivery stages, and an optional execution phase. Component incarnation is managed exclusively by a container. Occurances of component icarnation are controlled by as associated component implementation lifestyle characteristic. |
| Runtime Management | Runtime management deals with interaction with a component between the incarnation and etherialization stages. The Avalon framework defines the notion of a suspendable component. The framework also defines a number of delivery interfaces dealing with reintroduction of lifecycle artificats. None of the framework reintroduction interfaces are supported - instead, runtime management is approached as a management concern wherein any existing artifact delivery interface may be reused by a container while a component is under a suspended state. The action of resumption is equivalent to the notion of re-initialization. |
| Etherialization | The etherialization stage is the component equivalent of an object finalization. Etherialization covers the stopping of a running component and subsequent disposal. Initiation of the etherialization phase on a component instance is exclusively controlled by it's container. |
